Woman who used electric shock collar on toddler faces prison sentence

Former soldier Lanna Monaghan, 34, will serve time in prison after admitting she used a dog training collar that delivers electric shocks on a young boy in her care.

After seeing a similar collar being used on a dog, Monaghan told the pet’s owner: “If it works on a dog it will work on kids”.

This is an appalling catalogue of charges of physical crueltyLady Rae

The court heard that, as well as using the collar, the woman also kicked and bit the child, hit him with a wooden spoon so hard that it broke, and forced him to take cold showers.

Monaghan, formerly of Fort Augustus, admitted five charges of assault at Edinburgh High Court. The offences took place in the Highlands in 2014 and 2015.

Fort AugustusCredit:
OLU/Wiki

Judge Lady Rae, presiding, was shown photographs of injuries found on the boy’s neck which were consistent with what appeared to be electrodes on the dog collar.

“It must have been applied on a number of occasions,” she said.

Advocate depute Jane Farquharson said of the collar: “It works by a remote control which when activated delivers an electric shock … that the dog feels on its neck.”

Miss Farquharson told the court that police officers had seen injuries on the child’s face.

“When taken to the hospital and medically examined a number of non-accidental injuries were noted,” she added. “This included multiple bruising on the body and multiple red marks on the neck at a fixed distance from each other.”

Monaghan had told police that she had a temper and could “zone out” and go “out of control”.

Lady Rae told Monaghan: “This is an appalling catalogue of charges of physical cruelty, I think that is the only way to describe it, to a toddler over 15 months.”

“Realistically it would be very difficult to avoid custody in a case such as this. This was a toddler, a defenceless child.”